Rumblings about independence in Taiwan and Tibet. The pervasive popularity of that pesky Dalai Lama. Annoying criticism of their human-rights record. Foreign fussing about the tourist-choking air pollution in Beijing. Nothing seems to daunt the Communist Party poobahs who rule China with such authority and whose penchant for propaganda provides them with a quick, firm response to just about any crisis or challenge.

But what to do when some members of China’s creative community – its talented filmmakers – feel they’ve been abandoned by their muse?

The problem, as some of them see it, is the “blockbuster success” of “Kung Fu Panda,” that animated feature film that was made in Hollywood and has become a big summer hit; featuring the voices of such actors as Jack Black, Angelina Jolie and Dustin Hoffman, and starring a goofy, slacker panda “who works in his father’s noodle shop and eventually fulfills his dream of becoming a kung fu fighter,” the movie’s story is “set in ancient China, highlights Chinese culture, mythology and architecture[,] and…has [Chinese] filmmakers and ordinary Chinese wondering: Why wasn’t this hit made…in China?” To date, Kung Fu Panda has grossed some $350 million worldwide. (Washington Post)

The American actor Jack Black, who provides Kung Fu Panda’s voice, promoted the cartoon film in Madrid last month

The movie opened in cinemas in China on June 20. A recent Variety Asia news report noted: “‘Kung Fu Panda’ treats the revered martial art of kung fu in a creative way[;] it’s culturally sensitive, it makes China look good, it’s fun, witty and engaging, and people are lapping it up. It’s got pandas. So why can’t we do it here in China, top Communist cultural mandarins are asking?” By early July, the movie had earned nearly $16 million in China alone; its impressive earnings there are being seen as “a major milestone for a Hollywood film that looked like a sure-fire controversy in the home of both kung fu and pandas.”

Variety Asia‘s reporter wrote: “Cue some serious hand-wringing by a panel of the nation’s top cultural advisers. ‘The film’s protagonist is China’s national treasure and all the elements are Chinese, but why didn’t we make such a film?’ said Wu Jiang, president of China National Peking Opera Company and a key member of the Second Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC)….Committee member Sun Zhonghuan bemoaned the fact that few domestic firms were willing to sustain the huge risk” that was involved in the production of “Kung Fu Panda.” Sun noted that the American pic’s “budget of $130 million compared unfavorably with the $1.43 million spent on your average Chinese movie.” Sun said: “It’s not that we could not produce such a film, but we lack an integrated industry base. In other words, we might have the ideas, but we lack the structure to realize them….” Like a good, Chinese-government bureaucrat, “Sun called for drafting state policies to support cultural creativity, respect talent and create a social atmosphere conducive to innovation.”

Modern Chinese cinema and theater aren’t exactly well-known for coming up with confections like “Kung Fu Panda”; above: a scene from “The Red Detachment of Women,” one of the few stage works China’s communist rulers allowed to be performed during the Cultural Revolution period (1966-1976)

Alas, Xinhua, China’s state-controlled news service recently reported after a meeting of the CPPCC at which “Kung Fu Panda” was a main topic n the agenda: “After a lengthy philosophical discussion, the members of the Second Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 11th National Committee of the CPPCC decided, like the Kung Fu Panda himself, that ‘there is no secret ingredient.’ They agreed [to make] a recommendation to the government that it should relax its control in order to accelerate…reform and [the] opening up of the cultural market….” Their goal: “to enhance China’s cultural influence in the world.”